GLOOM continues to hit the leisure sector, with Scotland's five a side football operators hitting fresh multi-year lows. On Monday night, Powerleague revealed that its chairman, Claude Littner, had bought 290,000 shares in the company, while chief ex
ecutive Sean Tracey added 285,000 shares to his holding. But most investors seemed to take the attitude that director-buying is not necessarily a guide to short-term performance, leaving Powerleague closing down 0.75p at 50p. Rival Goals Soccer Centres also continued to slide, dropping 3 per cent to 221.75p.
Wolfson Microelectronics hit an all-time closing low yesterday on continuing woes in the consumer electronics market. Despite reports of trials of new audio chips for mobile phones, shares fell 2.25p to 98.25p.
Venture Production snapped up operator interests in two gas fields offshore of the Netherlands which Evolution Securities estimated would increase the Aberdeen company's reserves by 2 per cent, but Credit Suisse downgraded the shares to neutral and cut its target price by more than a quarter to 1,216p. A sharp fall in crude oil prices also helped push Venture shares down 3 per cent to 802p. Dana Petroleum, which is also based in Aberdeen, dropped 60p to 1,632p, while the illiquid Edinburgh-based Melrose Resources tumbled 19p to 390p.
The full article contains 231 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
